Cultivation Through Artifacts

"What?"

Bazz seeing Khal's surprised expression frowned and said, "What 'what'? You said you were able to learn a few things from watching me forging, then here... Show me. I'm curious to see."

'...' Khal remained silent for a bit and after a bit sighed and shook his head, "That will be impossible. This Dragon Steel is a High-Quality item and I have never seen it much less forge it!"

"Then how did you know it's a Dragon Steel?" questioned Bazz, seemingly wary about Khal's statement. 

"I mean, the metal you forged had the same appearance and you were the one who told it was named Dragon Steel," said Khal that was telling half lie and truth.

He indeed saw Bazz forging the same looking metal that he was currently holding, but he also learned its name and quality once he touched it.

His Analyzer ability immediately scanned the piece of metal, thus learning its name and quality wasn't a challenge at all.

'...' Bazz seemed to realized his disciple was right so sighed.

"Whatever... Let's start forging."

-

-

-

After spending several hours, almost half a day with Bazz and learning new techniques, Khal left the smithery and was about to meet Liza, when suddenly a guy blocked his path.

"You are?" Khal seemed indifferent to the guy before him.

The guy before him had an exceptionally strong body, his muscles bulging like balloons, while his manly facial expression would have been able to make any woman's heart melt.

To put it simply, he was the sheer definition of manliness!

"You can't remember me at all?" questioned the guy, his brow raised high in slight surprise.

Khal began to ponder and soon his eyes widened and nodded, "Yeah, now I can. You are Andre Dusk, right? Another individual with the V.I.P key."

Andre appeared to smile as it seemed Khal luckily didn't forget him thus extended his arm for a handshake and proceed on saying, "Congratulations for your achievements. To tell the truth I would have never believed you will reach 5th place."

Khal knew that Andre meant no contempt with his words so accepted the handshake and smiled, "Well, I was pleasantly surprised too. If they say I will finish 5th out of hundreds of Cultivators I wouldn't dare to bet on it."

"Haha, humble, I see." laughed Andre but soon turned serious which made Khal's mood turn to that too.

"Let's not beat around the bush, I want to challenge you."

Khal appreciated Andre's straightforwardness but before he replied to that challenge he asked, "And why me?"

"Isn't that obvious?" smiled slightly Andre and continued, "You are currently the most renowned Cultivator out of all Moon Academy and you have several powers I seem to find interesting. Now that we are no longer on the lower Stages but both of us are soon on the verge to break into the Sixth Stage, I want to test out my strength. I hope it's not a problem for you and you can spare a bit of your time for me and my selfish request."

Khal listened patiently for Andre to finish talking and once silence descended he began to ponder.

To tell the truth he wanted to test out his strength against someone on the same Stage as him, as the time he lost against Seila was still in his mouth as a bitter taste.

"Wait... How did you know I am also in the Fifth Stage?" realized Khal and asked with surprise.

However, Andre just simply smiled and pointed at his eyes, "Close inspection. One's body language can tell a lot of things from one-self."

'...' Khal thought it was total bullshit as to how could a simple body posture tell what kind of Stage the individual was on, but decided not to ask any further questions.

Instead, he nodded and said, "I accept your challenge, but what will you, or to be more precise I benefit from it?"

The question was a good one as every challenge should be fought for something, but because both of them had a V.I.P Key, none of them needed the other's one. So Khal was curious what Andre had in mind.

"If you win, I will tell you a little secret about Moon Mountain, but if I win, you have to answer one of my questions. Deal?"

"Just that?" asked Khal, thinking Andre's deal was a bit too simple, but that is why it made it special.

"Yeah." nodded Andre, showing he had no other conditions for Khal.

Khal hearing this smiled and nodded, "If that's all, then I don't seem to find why not to accept your challenge. I love secrets."

-

-

-

The news about Khal fighting with Andre spread in the interior of Moon Academy like wildfire, and soon every Cultivator ran to the Arena to watch their fight.

Among these curious individuals, several teachers attended too as they were curious to see just how strong Khal became after the tournament; among their numbers were Jas too, whose presence alone shocked many as it was rare to see him outside his room.

"Tsk... I can't believe I was summoned from my vacation because of a stupid fight. I expect you to compensate me because of this, old man." Logan who seemed a bit annoyed that he had to leave the beach and his peaceful life behind stared at Jas.

"Old man?" asked with a slightly raised brow Jas, seemingly unhappy by Logan's tone of voice and the way he talked with him.

'...' Logan however just remained silent and shrugged while shifted his gaze at the two on the platform.

"So? What is this about? I was enjoying an extremely good cocktail when I was ordered to come back."

"One of Raffin's students challenged Khal, as for what purpose we don't know. Maybe just a little test of strength." 

"So I was basically summoned to watch 2 kids fight with each other?" Logan sighed helplessly.

"Of course not. You were summoned to overlook the match as you are Khal's Master and your disciple is fighting. I hope you didn't forget the rules under such a short amount of time."

"Of course not, but still... I still would have had 2 more days to enjoy the sun and the ocean!" exclaimed Logan with a regretful sigh but once he saw Jas's gaze he just waved his hand and said, "Nevermind, I was also bored so this isn't as bad."

With that said Logan leaped into the air, and jumping through everyone's head from above, he landed on the platform and clapped his hands.

"Well then, let's start this fight, shall we?"